Articles of footwear have been designed for in a wide variety of physical activities including walking, running, hiking, trekking, hunting, backpacking, and indoor and outdoor activities. For example, hiking and work boots are typically designed to provide a wearer with suitable comfort and support for hiking or walking on uneven or rough terrain. Conventional hiking or work boots, however, can be relatively heavy. Every time a wearer takes a step, such as while walking or hiking, the wearer must lift the weight of the boot. After hundreds or thousands of steps, that additional weight can be fatiguing on the wearer's legs. Accordingly, it is highly desirable to minimize the weight of the footwear without overly compromising the stability and support of the footwear.
The footwear, such as a boot, is often designed in view of a typical wearer's gait cycle. The typical gate cycle includes several phases, including heel strike, flat foot, heel off, and toe off. During heel strike the boot initially strikes the ground at approximately the rear, medial portion of the boot's heel area. As the gait cycle progresses from heel strike toward flat foot, the loads are applied along the medial side of the heel portion. Progressing from flat foot through heel off and toe off, the loads typically move forwardly to the forefoot area of the boot and diagonally from the medial side to the lateral side of the boot. Accordingly, during heel off and toe off, the primary loads are at the lateral side of the forefoot until the wearer pushes off with his/her toes. A properly designed boot or other footwear can facilitate the wearer's gait cycle while providing stability and support to the wearer's foot and leg.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,484,420 and 6,757,990 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/110,739 (filed May 18, 2011) disclose a significant advancement in footwear technology to achieve a lightweight footwear assembly while maintaining a very stable platform. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,484,420 and 6,757,990 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/110,739 are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference. The footwear disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,484,420 and 6,757,990 incorporates a construction wherein at least a portion of the lateral and medial peripheral flanges of the upper are stitched to the insole board in the phalangeal and heel portions but not through the arch portion. Additionally, the lateral and medial peripheral flanges of the upper are wrapped around the lateral peripheral edge of the insole board in the arch portion and the medial peripheral flange of the upper is wrapped around the medial peripheral edge of the insole board in the arch portion. Moreover, the lateral and medial peripheral flanges are adhesively secured to the bottom surface of the arch portion of the insole board. This construction provides a very lightweight and stable platform, although there are areas where improvements may be made for selected footwear.